2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

Lambo's littlest comes into its own.

As Lamborghini’s “entry-level” model, the Gallardo serves one clear purpose: to butter Lamborghini’s bread, just as the F430 does for arch-rival Ferrari. However, lacking as it does the F430’s rich bloodlines and je ne sais quoi—to say nothing of living in the shadow of the Murciélago LP640—the Gallardo has yet to achieve the F430’s status as an icon in its own right.

Nevertheless, Lamborghini’s bread got its butter, and now Lambo is sharpening the blade of its knife for 2009, evolving the Gallardo into an even more charismatic sports car, with more power, catchier styling, and a new suffix—LP560-4—indicating its longitudinale posteriore engine layout, 560 PS (552 SAE horsepower), and four-wheel drive.

The Gallardo’s newfound bravado is clear at first glance. The sheetmetal is both cleaner and meaner, with a new plexiglass decklid panel that offers drooling onlookers a peek at the heart of the beast. Y-shaped LED running lamps add a brazen new signature to the Gallardo’s more chiseled nose.

Audi’s ownership of Lamborghini is evidenced in the Gallardo’s superlative fit and finish, with a few upgraded materials sprinkled throughout, such as a new steering wheel and a row of gleaming metal window toggles. It is undeniably a premium-feeling environment—the plebeian, Audi-cribbed infotainment and climate controls notwithstanding—though it remains as sterile as an operating room compared with the F430’s loving cockpit.

But the most important upgrades are felt, not seen. Lamborghini bored the Gallardo’s V-10 to 5.2 liters (from 5.0) and blessed it with direct injection, bumping output to 552 horsepower (up 40) and 398 pound-feet of torque (up 22). Various suspension pieces have been redesigned and lightened, contributing to a claimed weight loss of 44 pounds.

The transformation is remarkable. Acceleration is stunning, with 60 mph coming up in the mid-three-second range. The 30/70 front-to-rear torque split facilitates tail-out trickery, especially with the e-gear automated manual transmission set in “Corsa” mode. The most aggressive of its five new selectable settings, it chops shift times by 40 percent and tells the stability-control system to back off. That said, the Corsa shifts are particularly brutal, so that mode is best left to track duty. Steering feel is much improved, but the optional carbon-ceramic brakes take finesse to master.

Now that the Gallardo is all grown up, let’s see if it becomes the icon it deserves to be.